Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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A divided Tucumcari City Commission on Thursday settled on $1.50-an-hour raises for all city employees for fiscal year 2023 after considering $2.50-an-hour hikes for those workers or exclusively police officers. Most commissioners admitted they wanted the bigger raises to help the city’s pay scale be even more competitive with other municipalities. They expressed concerns, however, about the possibility of a national recession blunting city revenue, plus deficits that might empty the city’s cash reserves in just a few years. The city’s finan...
After unexpectedly large attendance last year, organizers for the 51st Rattler Reunion are hoping to piggyback on that success and draw even larger numbers of Tucumcari High School alumni this week. Reunion Chairman Joe Szaloy said last Wednesday that just under 300 people had preregistered for the event, and he expected more by mail or from walk-up registrations when the event begins Thursday at the Tucumcari Convention Center. “We’re hoping we’ll have 400 to 500 or more,” he said. “Hopefully, we’re expecting larger numbers than ever before...
The Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Advisory Board voted last week to recommend up to $20,000 to participate in the New Mexico Music Commission’s new cost-share grant program. Carlos Medina of Santa Fe, chairman of the commission, told the board the New Mexico Legislature gave the commission a first-ever budget of $100,000. Medina said about $75,000 of that could be used for cost-share grants with municipalities to help pay for New Mexico-based music acts to perform there. Medina said he anticipates Tucumcari could be eligible for up to $10,000 in c...
The Tucumcari City Commission previously was considering a $1.50-an-hour raise for all city employees to make their pay more competitive in the regional marketplace. Now the commission is taking a look at $2.50-an-hour raises, especially for its police officers. Commissioners during a work session Thursday ultimately asked acting city manager Mark Martinez and Finance Director Rachelle Arias to look at the fiscal effect of $2.50 raises for officers or the entire city staff before they make set a budget and submit it to the state during its...
The Tucumcari school board last week approved revised student regulations on dress codes for the 2022-2023 school year but delayed action on hair styles and tattoos until members could discuss it further at its August meeting. Board members, who agreed dress-code revisions were overdue during its June meeting, unanimously approved the new regulations for tops and bottoms during its July 18 meeting so parents could go shopping for clothes before the school year begins in mid-August. However, board members expressed misgivings about revised...
A veteran folksinger who has rubbed elbows with Bob Dylan and Judy Collins early in their careers recently wrote and recorded a song about an indelible moment he experienced in eastern Quay County nearly 70 years ago. John Winn, 88, earlier this month uploaded a video to his new song, "Tucumcari Wind," recorded in a friend's studio near Winn's Grand Junction, Colorado, home. Since going live on YouTube, the song wracked up more than 500 views in less than 10 days. Accompanied by mandolin, piano...
Work began last week on a long-delayed baseball and softball park development project on Tucumcari's west side. Work started the morning of July 18 in clearing trees. During his superintendent's report at a school board meeting later that evening, Aaron McKinney said a long-awaited survey on the site had been finished, and the Tucumcari City Commission soon would approve the deed of its property to the school district, likely at its July 28 meeting. Voters approved a $3 million bond issue in...
San Jon Municipal Schools has a new superintendent coming from Clayton who has a lengthy administrative history at school districts in Texas. San Jon school board president Frank Gibson said Monday that Alan Umholtz, 62, on Aug. 1 officially will replace Janet Gladu, who departed from the San Jon district last month after four years to take a similar position in La Harpe, Illinois, so she could be closer to her children and grandchildren in that state. Gladu previously was a superintendent at a district in western Illinois. The San Jon board...
So far, it appears Republicans’ skepticism over election integrity hasn’t much affected Quay County, and local officials say part of that is because of County Clerk Ellen White who, ironically, is a Democrat. Not all New Mexico counties can make that claim. Otero County commissioners for several days refused to certify the results of the June 7 primary election, though they cited no voting irregularities there. Torrance and Sandoval counties experienced unruly opposition from the public when commissioners approved the canvass of their pri...
In a corner of Henry Goldenberg's home in Santa Clara, California, there stands a potbelly stove. It's one of the few things that survive from Goldenberg's childhood home at 502 S. Third St. in Tucumcari. That, and a lot of memories. Goldenberg, 84, recently wrote to the Quay County Sun, detailing stories of his childhood and his best friend who "grew up protected by loving families, faith and good neighbors." Goldenberg sprinkled his letter with stories that included his father Henry and...
Tucumcari City commissioners last week tabled a first reading on an ordinance that would change its regular meeting schedule for the first time in more than two decades. Commissioners voted 4-1, with Mike Cherry casting the only dissenting vote, to delay action on the measure during a special meeting June 27. Most commissioners said they want to hear more opinions from the public about the proposed change. Commissioners during earlier work sessions had discussed changing its meeting time from the current 6 p.m. twice a month on Thursdays. The...
All members of the Tucumcari Public Schools board during a meeting June 20 voiced willingness to make changes to the district’s dress code before the school year begins in August. The board discussed a June 9 handout, titled “Proposal to Update TPS Dress Code Regulations,” that detailed the proposal and a survey about the plan. Board members took no action during the meeting because it was not an action item on the agenda but signaled they would adopt the new policy, with possible minor changes, at their next meeting in July. A summary page...
The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and a teen’s possible threat that prompted a cancellation of classes in Tucumcari loomed large during another discussion about bullying in last week’s school board meeting. A teenager using an AR-15 rifle killed 19 children and two teachers in an Uvalde elementary school on May 24. The subsequent investigation has focused on security and police failures during the shootings. On June 3, Tucumcari Public Schools canceled summer classes that day as a precaution after a 16-year-old posted a possible threat on I...
New Mexico Game & Fish earlier in June warned that bears might roam from the woodlands in the northern part of the state due to drought. About that time, that apparently happened just west of Tucumcari. A rural Tucumcari man's daughter and her boyfriend shot and killed an unusually large black bear on June 18 after the animal broke into the man's chicken coop and ate one of the birds. Andrew Swapp, a department chair at Mesalands Community College's wind-energy center, lives off Quay Road AT wes...
SAN JON — The board for San Jon Municipal Schools during a special meeting Wednesday approved the hiring of an interim superintendent to replace outgoing superintendent Janet Gladu. The board tapped Dane Kennon of Hanover, New Mexico, for $100 an hour, plus expenses that include boarding and gasoline. The agreement takes effect July 1, though Kennon probably won’t assume any superintendent duties until July 5, after the Independence Day holiday. Kennon’s teaching experience includes Silver City, Cobre, Cliff, Deming and Las Cruces. He also...
Tucumcari resident Joe Szaloy on Monday finally got his request to help pay for speed humps on East Maple Avenue on the Quay County commission’s agenda, only for it to be rejected. Commissioners voted 3-0 to not place anything on the roadway, which has seen an upswing in traffic and speeding in the north Tucumcari neighborhood just a few feet beyond city limits. During previous county meetings, Szaloy had offered to pay for speed hump materials for the road. He said several families with children had moved to East Maple Avenue, and he feared a...
To hear Michael Carlson tell it, it was the building itself that inspired him and his wife to open Carlson Coffee Company on Saturday near the historic Tucumcari railroad depot. The nearly century-old structure at 115 E. Smith Ave., with its Streamline Moderne curves and flat roof, once housed Lena's Cafe, the Tri-Angle Cafe and Danford Dan's Music Shop. Carlson said he also heard from former Tucumcari Daily News photographer James Crocker the building was a house of prostitution for railroad...
The Tucumcari City Commission authorized the use of about $9,600 in lodgers tax executive funds to help pay for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display at the Elks Lodge, but it didn’t pass a ban on some types of fireworks as anticipated. City Manager Mark Martinez said during the meeting Thursday the $9,629.29 cost for fireworks shipped from the El Paso area will be partly reimbursed by a $1,000 contribution from Quay County and $4,000 from Elks Lodge 1172. That would make the city’s share about $4,500. Martinez said he was told this yea...
The Quay County Treasurer's Office last week held its biggest auction in at least a decade for tax-delinquent properties, selling more than one-third of those tracts. What also was notable were two that didn't sell - both commercial properties that have deteriorated into eyesores in Tucumcari. County treasurer Patsy Gresham said Thursday said 20 tax-delinquent properties of the 58 on the block were sold during the June 14 auction. She said that netted slightly more than $5,000 for the county,...
Tommy Snapp held a soft opening Saturday for his 4 Corners Bait, Tackle and Sporting Goods in Tucumcari, though it will be at least a few more weeks until it has a full selection of offerings for outdoorsmen. Snapp was selling hunting and fishing licenses at the shop in a century-old building at 111 W. Main St., plus tags for duck hunting. Within minutes after opening Saturday, he rang up his first sale - a bag of jerky from a local company, Jerk of All Trades. He has targeted July 6 as a full...
About 40 women on motorcycles made an overnight stop on Saturday in Tucumcari as part of a two-week cruise on the length of Route 66, called Chix on 66. Participants said they've enjoyed the journey so far, except they wished an unusual heat wave that began almost on Day One would back off a little. The trip, which began from the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee on June 10, was organized by the women-focused Riveter Chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America. The journey is scheduled t...
The Quay County commission on Monday took several significant steps to building a new hospital to replace aging Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari, including unanimously approving a nearly $1 million design service fee with an Arizona architectural firm. The $981,718.94 design service fee with Stantec Architecture in Phoenix, which has designed 19 other rural hospitals, covers architectural, structural, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, civil engineering and heliport designs. It included an estimated $58,000 discount because of...
A Tucumcari man was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison Thursday after a Quay County jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting of his friend that he claimed was an accident. Joshua Braziel, 31, had been charged with first-degree murder and felony possession of methamphetamine after he shot Bryan Youman, 19, of Tucumcari in the head with a handgun on Sept. 4, 2020, after asking him whether he wanted to die that day. Braziel pleaded guilty to the possession charge after his murder conviction. Before his sentencing,...
Because of tinderbox conditions, Tucumcari City Commission likely will impose restrictions on the sale or use of certain types of fireworks during a special meeting at 1 p.m. June 16. Most commissioners, however, indicated they weren’t willing to extend those restrictions to the annual Fourth of July fireworks display at the Elks Lodge 1172. During a work session Thursday, City Manager Mark Martinez said the timeline demands a fireworks proclamation be passed within 20 days of the holiday. He said similar city proclamations during other dry s...
Weather conditions forced plenty of rejiggering of the schedule for the 23rd annual Iron Pour at Mesalands Community College last week. The event that gives artists from across the globe the opportunity to pour molten metal into sculpture molds was supposed to hold two consecutive days of that activity - one on Thursday for new or inexperienced artists with small artworks, then the traditional Friday pour for veteran participants with larger art pieces. But on Thursday evening, a thunderstorm...